Free wireless Internet access offered at library

Ken Ehlers set up his laptop with a new wireless Internet connection at Sisters Library. Photo by Conrad Weiler

Sisters Library now offers free wireless Internet service for users at the library. Patrons may now use their own computer rather than the desktop models available at the library.

Bring a laptop with a wireless (wi-fi) card to the library, turn it on, and you have an Internet connection with your own machine. There is nothing to plug in, no wires to trip over, just a fast Internet connection.

Users may sit on the outside library deck on a warm day or in the car while surfing the 'Net at the library.

According to Rod Miller, Information Technology Manager at DPLS (Deschutes Public Library System), "The connection is a frame-relay T1.1.54Mbps that is a high speed dedicated network circuit, which both the library's voice and data travels over.

"Incidentally, we just completed a very sophisticated voice-over-IP telephone system in the Sisters Branch, along with all of the other Deschutes branches. Sisters has some of the most leading edge technology of any library in the State of Oregon."

This is also the first "free" public high-speed wireless Internet service to be offered in Central Oregon.

Initial tests at the library had a 30K graphic load in 1.8 seconds and a 470K graphic in 16.8 seconds. A typical 33K modem operates at 4,000 cps (characters per second) while the library system operated at 28,750 cps.

Use "sisters" in lower-case and without the quotes for SSID when setting up the wireless connection.